I Want To Hold Your Hand
by live2tivo
Summary: A trip to Omaha leads to Buffy and Spike’s first encounter since the events of the Buffy finale. Based on the prompt: hand holding. Set three years post-Chosen. Vague season eight spoilers. Spike/Buffy.


Title: I Want To Hold Your Hand

Author: Musical_Junkie/Tally/Live2TiVo

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Pairing: Buffy/Spike

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Overt spoilers for the Buffy finale and slight reference to events from the season eight comics.

Summary: A trip to Omaha leads to Buffy and Spike's first encounter since the events of the Buffy finale.

Word Count: 805 (much longer than my last fic!)

Notes: I'm not caught up in the Buffy season 8 comics, and I haven't even begun the post-series Angel comics. This was written for laiquendai who wanted surprise hand holding, which this has and then some.

* * *

It took two years after the implosion of Sunnydale before Buffy saw Spike again outside of her dreams. It was a chance encounter in _Nebraska _of all places, when she was helping a group of slayers settle into their post in Omaha, and he was tracking a rouge demon across the country. She didn't see him first, that honor belonged to Erica, a new slayer who nearly staked him. He cried out, and Buffy recognized his voice. (Plus, who else would say "Bloody Slayerettes" when they were about to be impaled?)

"Erica! Don't!"

Erica, shocked, dropped her stake, as Buffy ran over towards Spike.

"Buffy? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"I'm chasing a nasty. I see you're training the slayerettes to do the same."

He smirked, and Buffy took a moment to look at him. She knew he was alive (well, as much "alive" as he had been back in his Sunnydale days), and his existence had been confirmed by a number of sources, but this was different. She had an overwhelming urge to touch him, just to reassure herself that he was real. But, she didn't. Her relationships with certain vampires weren't something she advertised to the other slayers on a regular basis, despite the rumors.

"Buffy? What are you doing? He's a vampire, and he wasn't even fighting back," asked Hillary, another slayer, who had a death grip on her stake, ready to come to Buffy's aid at the first sign of trouble.

"Apparently, Miss Summers here has been slacking in teaching you the 'who's who of the vampire world.' I'm Spike—former bad-ass vampire who killed two slayers in my prime, and current bad-ass vampire who kills demons instead. And, believe me, demons are much easier…although, less rewarding, I must admit."

Buffy elbowed him in the side, although with a laughable lack of force.

The slayers whispered among themselves at the news of his identity, swapping all of the stories they'd heard about him through the slayer grapevine.

Her group now distracted, Buffy turned back to Spike. "So, what exactly are you tracking? I haven't heard of anything on the loose."

"Good. I'm pretty sure he thinks I've lost him." Spike continued into all of the details—what it was, how it killed, where it had been.

"If he hasn't struck by this point, he isn't going to do anything tonight. He doesn't 'work' after midnight. We're better off saving our strength and heading out again tomorrow."

"Okay, why don't you come back to the house with us instead of finding a crypt for the night? There's a window-less room in the basement you could use, and I'm sure the girls would love to ask you some questions."

"You know how I love to tell a good story."

Buffy explained to the slayers what the new plan entailed, and they began to leave the cemetery. Hillary, Erica, and the rest of the slayers led the way to the house with Buffy and Spike trailing behind.

Spike asked her about the Scoobies—Xander, Willow, Giles, and so on—as he hadn't received much news from the group over the years.

"And the little bit, how is she these days?"

Buffy launched into the tale of Dawn's temporary enlargement—Spike was one of the only people left who knew Dawn and hadn't heard the story. He laughed in all the right places, and she was glad to have a captive audience that _wasn't _a group of star-struck slayers.

Spike mentioned that he hoped to visit "Slayer Central" to see Dawn and the rest at some point, and Buffy didn't know what she was doing until it was done. She reached over and grabbed his cold hand, as they turned onto the street where the slayer house was. Spike paused, but he laced his fingers with hers, before he began a story that didn't exactly portray Angel in the most positive light. Buffy smiled—some things never changed.

Their hands remained entwined long after they arrived at the house—through Spike's wild tales to the slayers ("Listen closely, because I can teach you more about fighting demons in one night than you could learn on your own in a lifetime.") and through at least an hour and a half of question after question to both Spike and Buffy about their years in Sunnydale.

As the sun began to creep into view, Buffy escorted Spike to the artificially-lit basement.

"Thank you," Buffy said, leaving off implied follow ups like: 'for taking the time to talk to the slayers', 'for caring about Dawn', 'for coming back'…

Spike didn't say anything, choosing instead to squeeze her hand more tightly for a moment before breaking their contact. He raised his hand to touch her face—his palm was warm against her cheek.


End file.
